Why do people hate Lwaxana Troi?

[JirinPanthosa]

He was established to be career oriented and ambitious.

Then they had him turn down his career ambition for years because he would miss his friends too much.

 

[JesterFace]

Then they had him turn down his career ambition for years because he would miss his friends too much.

People change.
What if Riker enjoyed his job on the Enterprise and didn't want to leave?

 

[Oddish]

Such as William Riker wanted to be the heir and master of the starship Enterprise and nothing else. That drum had been beaten on through all seven seasons, I don't blame him, and being offered other ships which were not even as close to the ship he loved was not worth the challenge.

If he wanted to command the Enterprise, or a comparable capital ship, commanding a smaller vessel was a necessary next step. Picard had over 20 years' experience as a captain before he set foot aboard the Enterprise.

 

[STEPhon IT]

If he wanted to command the Enterprise, or a comparable capital ship, commanding a smaller vessel was a necessary next step. Picard had over 20 years' experience as a captain before he set foot aboard the Enterprise.

The one thing I thought TNG had shown, Riker was not Captain Picard and I thought the writers were smart not to offer him a Galaxy Class vessel because then he would get something he desired. If he refused then I would see there was more to what he wanted besides the Enterprise. At the time, the Enterprise was state of the art and it was a thrill to be an Ex-O for this special vessel. In The Best of Both Worlds, Riker got what he wanted but not like what happened, he wanted a transition of powers and he was comfortable to being the Captain's right hand man. Spock was the same way and he as well was much valued to his CO. Ambitions were there from the get go but some are forgetting the details where he mentioned many times he wanted the Enterprise.

Another missed opportunity of not making the Titan a Galaxy Glass. Think about it; this was the last TNG movie, how cool it would've been to see a Galaxy Class ship fly to our screens as the ugly - E is being repaired? It would give us fans a welcome appearance of a beloved vessel from the series.

 

[Mojochi]

Having his father, his commanding officer, his hopeful replacement (Shelby) & the commanding admiral (Hanson) all basically question the sensibility of Riker staying at commander, within the course of a year or so of his career, is just about all the writing on the wall there needs to be. He's stalled or settled by choice

Riker shoots up from Ensign to Commander way faster than normal, is offered a command after 12 years (Jonathan Frakes was 34 when TNG started).

But Riker was 29, coming to the D in 2364. By 7 years after graduation, in 2357, promoted 4 times, & offered a 5th to captain. Just by the time of BoBW he'd already been a commander as long or longer than any other rank in his entire meteoric career, & turned down 3 promotions to stay at it.

 

[STEPhon IT]

I'm struggling to recall if Riker had a decent relationship with Lwaxana?

 

[oldtrekkie]

I'm struggling to recall if Riker had a decent relationship with Lwaxana?

She once thought of marrying him.

 

[Coops]

Do you mean 'hate' though or just prefer other characters to her? If anybody here can honestly say they 'hate' the fictional character Lwaxana Troi, they get all angry and shouty when she appears on their screen, I would suggest they have issues that need addressing.

 

[Mojochi]

I'm struggling to recall if Riker had a decent relationship with Lwaxana?

She once thought of marrying him.

& when not thinking of doing so herself, she was relentless about badgering Deanna to.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I love her flamboyantly ostentatious attitude and watching Captain Pikard squirm is hilarious! I like her Lurch manservant as well. She is designed to annoy the characters in the show with her eccentricities and that’s her purpose. I can’t understand why people take her so personally!

Agreed on all counts. I love Lwaxana, I think she's hilarious!

I'm struggling to recall if Riker had a decent relationship with Lwaxana?

I always got the impression Lwaxana was slightly annoyed with Riker because he dragged his feet on marrying Deanna.

 

[Mojochi]

I always got the impression Lwaxana was slightly annoyed with Riker because he dragged his feet on marrying Deanna.

but in all fairness, she was probably similarly annoyed with any man, including Picard, that she couldn't get married to herself

 

[oldtrekkie]

Well, she's a bit of a snob.

 

[Mojochi]

Her archetype is kind of ironic though, when you think about it. Back before Deanna was born, she was the quintessential Star Trek sexy alien ambassadorial goddess from the nudie telepathy love planet, not unlike the countless alien babes Kirk encountered, who were all too happy to jump into a valiant young Starfleet officer's bed

Which is what she got. She married a Starfleet officer, who probably came to her planet & swept her off her feet like a swashbuckling Kirk might've done. Except, it didn't work out to be any happily ever after for her. He died in the line of duty, after having lost a child, & now she's getting old, & it gets harder to hold onto that alien goddess identity, & she retreats into this overbearing persona as a defense mechanism

Of course she's a bit of a snob. She was a telepathic royal sexpot. Ironically, as hard as the character might be to tolerate, it kind of works realistically, once you have the whole story.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Well, she's a bit of a snob.

Maybe a little bit, yeah. But she still has a good heart and cares about people, even with her somewhat inflated sense of self-importance. I don't think she would ever willingly hurt anyone.

 

[STEPhon IT]

& when not thinking of doing so herself, she was relentless about badgering Deanna to.

Was there moments where Riker had similar sentiments like Picard and Odo had towards her? I don't remember.

 

[Mojochi]

Was there moments where Riker had similar sentiments like Picard and Odo had towards her? I don't remember.

You mean like being annoyed or embarrassed by her behavior? Not really that I can think of. I think that kind of stuff actually amused him. Even Deanna seemed to have more of a rejection to it. I don't recall her ever really putting the screws into Riker like she did Picard though.

 

[oldtrekkie]

Maybe a little bit, yeah. But she still has a good heart and cares about people, even with her somewhat inflated sense of self-importance. I don't think she would ever willingly hurt anyone.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

 

[Herbert]

Two main reasons:

1) Because she's obnoxious.

2) Because Lwaxana episodes are usually bad.

That's it in a nutshell for me. Add to that, she was overused (Q suffers from this as well) even to the point of sticking her in DS9. Yeah, the series needed that. I'm kind of shocked they didn't figure out some way to have her show up in a Voyager episode.

My big objection to her, other than what's stated above is that she takes over an episode. This is supposed to be a show with an ensemble cast and every time she was on it became the Lwaxana show and relegated other main characters to mere support roles. Had we been talking about one or two episodes, it wouldn't have been so bad but they just kept bringing her back. Dark Page and Half A Life are the most egregious examples. At least in the earlier appearances, she plays more of a comic foil type of role. When they tried to apply a layer of seriousness on top of her, it got insufferable.

 

[Herbert]

He was established to be career oriented and ambitious.

Then they had him turn down his career ambition for years because he would miss his friends too much.

This is more the fault of the writers than it is Riker. Had Riker been promoted in one of those early opportunities Frakes would have been off the show in an early season and that kind of stuff didn't really happen in 80s television. Cast members of shows would come and go for different non-story reasons but I don't think the producers of TNG would have wanted to write him out of the show simply because Riker was so ambitious. It would have made more sense in-universe but in real life, no.

I think they really screwed the pooch on this one. They should never have presented him as being so ambitious and then having him turn down one promotion after another. It was odd

 

[JirinPanthosa]

This is more the fault of the writers than it is Riker.

That's the point.

They could have had some story where he made some right but unpopular decision that hurt his career and Picard had to fight for him to remain his XO, and it would have worked fine. Anything but offering him commands and having him turn them down.

 

[Greg Cox]

Do people actually hate her? I remembering finding her amusing in small doses, and I loved the idea that, even in the overly "utopian" world of TNG, people were still sometimes embarrassed or driven nuts by their family members.